Hard Hitting Analysis of Steelers Football

Category Archives: Steelers 2017 Training Camp

The Steelers activated Sammie Coates from the PUP this week, allowing him to practice with the team during training camp for the first time this summer. Suffice it’s been a long strange trip for Sammie Coates.

Nonetheless, during the first half of the season, Sammie Coates was best known for a failed fourth down hookup with Mike Vick during the Steelers 2015 loss to the Ravens. You didn’t see much after that to the point that when reporters touted Sammie Coates potential heading into the Steelers AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Broncos, this site begged to differ, arguing that DHB was the man to watch.

Fortunately, I was wrong, Sammie Coates lived up to the hype come up with two strong catches in the playoff loss.

Just past the quarterpost of the 2016 season, it looked like Coates was about to become that man.

In what looked to be his breakout game against the Jets, Coates caught 6 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns. He also injured his hand in that game, and then things got strange. First there were conflicting reports over how many stitches Coates needed. Then there was talk of broken fingers. Nonetheless, Mike Tomlin continued to play him on specials teams. Beat writers started to suggest that injuries weren’t the only issues dogging Coates.

Regardless of the reason, Sammie Coates only caught two more passes for 14 yards during the rest of the season.

Sammie Coates knee surgery couldn’t have come at a worse time. Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, and JuJu Smith-Schuster are roster locks, and one would have to figure that either Justin Hunter and/or Eli Rogers is guaranteed to make the team.

That leaves Coates vying for one roster spot with Hunter/Rogers, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Hamilton, and Ayers.

It says here that Sammie Coates is far more talented than any of those players. But it’s also true that all of them were far more productive down the stretch last season than Coates, injuries or no. His performance in the Steelers final three preseason games will show whether Sammie Coates really fits in Pittsburgh.

Finding a starter-capable player at right outside linebacker was one critical question the Steelers needed to answer “Yes” two during training camp, and it appears they leave St. Vincents having done so. But they will also leave St. Vincent’s without James Harrison having practiced with the team, which isn’t all that out of the ordinary, given that Harrison doesn’t need the reps.

But before the Steelers preseason opener against the Giants, Steel City Insider’sJim Wexell identified 15 potential open slots on the Steelers roster and 38 locks, leave Harrison and William Gay as “almost locks.”

In Wexell’s view a combination of a numbers game with Harrison not showing enough speed could put him in jeopardy.

Regardless of whether Wexell was simply speculating or musing about something he’d heard off the record, Dale Lolley of the Observer-Reporter’s conversation with Joey Porter thickened the plot, as Porter declared:

We know what he can do. At the same time, you want to see a little bit to make sure he still has got it,” Everybody has to be tested to see if you still got it. We can assume something. But the NFL, sometimes you just wake up one day and that pop is gone. There will be a time when we take the wrapping off of him and let him go out there so we can see if it’s still that James from last year.

That, combined with James Harrison being held out of practice, was enough to get Dale Lolley to question whether the Steelers were preparing to move on from James Harrison.

While that’s certainly a possibility, such a move would be out of character for the Steelers. It’s well known that Chuck Noll held on to too many of his starters from the 70’s for too long, but institutional memory has largely kept the team from making the same mistake, as James Farrior, Aaron Smith and Hines Ward learned during the 2012 off season.

The Steelers not only brought Harrison back, but offered him a two year deal, with Harrison proclaiming his desire to play into his 40s. The Steelers cut plenty of players before their contracts expire – think Justin Hartwig or Willie Colon, but it’s rare for them to cut someone after signing them to a new contract (Greg Warren excepted, although word is the Steelers did it this way so that Warren would benefit financially.)

Are the Steelers Bettising James Harrison?

The other possibility is that the Steleers are “Bettising” James Harrison. “Bettising” of course refers to Steelers Hall of Fame Running back Jerome Bettis, who began hearing calls from the experts (Mike Prisuta, for example) as early as the 2002 season.

And while Bill Cowher, Kevin Colbert and Dan Rooney didn’t pay much heed to those calls, outside criticism his ability still served to motivate Bettis late in his career.

Jerome Bettis and Ryan Clark at St. Vincents in 2015. Photo Credit: Steelers.com

Could the Steelers be doing something similar with James Harrison? It is possible but unlikely. James Harrison, who was in the weight room at 5:00 am the morning after the Steelers playoff win over the Chiefs, epitomes the concept of “self-starter.” He needs no motivation.

So on the one hand, you have the Steelers who don’t typically sign veterans and then cut them, on the other hand you have two veteran reporters who are not wont to suggest that someone of James Harrison’s stature is on the roster bubble as a matter of idle speculation.

To be clear, Jim Wexell has reiterated that he expects to see Harrison on the final roster. And even offered this after Harrion’s “mob interview” at St. Vincents:

James Harrison just endured a mob interview. The gist: He would rather make a play in February than September.

As someone who would love nothing more than to see James Harrison hosting Lombardi Number 7 alongside Ben Roethlisberger, the hope here is that Wexell’s instinct is right and Mike Tomlin and Joey Porter are in fact “Bettising” Deebo.

Time will tell. But until then, we’ll chalk this up as a case of 2+2 not quite equaling four.

The Pittsburgh Steelers begin their 2017 Preseason schedule tonight against the New York Giants. After a six month hiatus, Steelers Nation will rejoice at finally being able to watch the Black and Gold on the gridiron again!

But expect the excitement to fade fast.

As soon as Joshua Dobbs throws his first pick six and/or after the 5th commercial break during the 1st quarter, the traditional complaints about the ills of preseason football will litter social media from now until the Steelers kickoff the regular season a month from now.

If you’re a Steelers season ticket holder, which let’s admit is a privileged minority in Steelers Nation, who is forced to pay full price for preseason tickets, then you’ve got a legitimate gripe. But if you fall outside that sphere, then it is time to accept a simple reality:

Preseason football is vital to the game.

If you need proof, then look no further than Jordan Dangerfield. Jordan Dangerfield is of course one of the Steelers 2017 exclusive rights free agents, who got his first shot at the NFL with the Buffalo Bills in 2013 as an undrafted rookie free agent. Dangerfield failed to make the cut with the Bills, and signed a “futures” contract with the Steelers in January of 2014.

The Steelers cut Jordan Dangerfield in 2014 and 2015, but brought him back each time to the practice squad. It took Jordan Dangerfield until 2016 to prove to Mike Tomlin, Keith Butler and Carnell Lake that he deserved a spot on the Steelers 53 man roster.

Go back to the summers of 2014, 2015 and even, to a lesser extent, 2016 and do Google searches for “Jordan Dangerfield.” You won’t find much.

Steel City Insider’sJim Wexell wrote a glowing report of Dangerfield’s work in training camp on at the end of July, 2014. Neal Coolong, then at BTSC, wrote a nice “content aggregation” piece on Dangerfield offering his own unique spin as only Neal could. Curt Popjoy, then on the Bleacher Report, wrote something about Dangerfield’s chances of making the team.

There’s scant mention of him during 2015, save for one Bleacher Report stub on a fumble he forced in the Steelers 2015 preseason loss to the Bills. Dangerfield did get more attention last summer, as Penn Live’sJacob Klingler wrote a really nice profile in the lead up to the Steelers preseason win over the Saints.

During that time, Jordan Dangerfield presumptively played in 13 Steelers preseason games. Yet these Google searches, (which admittedly can be imperfect) reveal only a handful of mentions.

There’s something wrong with this picture.

Jordan Dangerfield remains a roster bubble baby. He’ll have to prove himself this summer to get a helmet in the fall. But any guy who gets pulled of the NFL scrap heap and works his way up to being “the next man up” behind Sean Davis and Mike Mitchell in the Steelers safety rotation has come a long way.

And while his work in practice helped, his preseason performance undoubtedly is what convinced coaches to keep him around.

So during the 2nd halves of the Steelers 2017 preseason games, instead of grousing about Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant not playing, or griping about Le’Veon Bell’s hold out, why not sit back, relax, and that diamond in the rough who flying below the radar in pursuit of his NFL dream.

Does the quality of NFL preseason, particularly late in games, pale in comparison to the regular season? Certainly. But why not stop complaining and why not enjoy the fact that preseason gives most fans their only chance to see and evaluate rookies for themselves, without the filter of a beat writer and/or the team’s PR organ.

An who know? You might just earn bragging rights by uncovering the next Jordan Dangerfield.

Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Senquez Golson has had a bad break or two during his first two-plus years with the team.

Unfortunately, you may have to make that three.

According to several Steelers beat writers–including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac–Golson was carted off the field with an apparent foot, ankle, or hamstring injury during the team’s first practice in pads on Sunday afternoon.

As of this writing, there is no official word on Golson’s condition. But regardless of the extent of the injury, this has to further erode the confidence of not only the player, but that of the coaches in him, coaches who once thought so highly of Golson’s skills after selecting him out of Ole Miss in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft, he had the inside track on starting in the slot position in his rookie season.

But Golson’s rookie season was snuffed out before training camp even began, thanks to a shoulder injury that required surgery and placed him on the Injured Reserve list.

A year ago, during the first Monday of training camp, Golson suffered a Lisfranc injury–a mid-foot sprain–that led to a second surgery, another stint on IR and, ultimately forced him to miss all of his second campaign.

Since selecting Golson two years ago, the Steelers have drafted Artie Burns, Sean Davis, Cameron Sutton and Brian Allen in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and signed veteran corner Coty Sensabaugh as a free-agent this past spring.

The odds seemed stacked against Golson as he laced up his pads and took the field at St. Vincent College Sunday

Photo credit: Steelers.com

afternoon.

But after suffering his third injury in the past three summers, the odds are that Senquez Golson may wind up as nothing but a foot-note in Steelers history.

Super Bowl windows are notoriously hard to pry open and are wont to slam shut without warning. In the modern NFL, having a franchise quarterback forms a necessary, yet insufficient element to bringing home a Lombardi.

A quarterback can’t do it alone, even if his last name is Marnio, Elway, Brady and yes Roethlisberger.

Art Rooney II, Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin have known this and made their personnel choices accordingly since the Steelers rebuild began in earnest after 2012. The franchise returned to the playoffs in 2014, got a playoff win in 2015, and knocked on heaven’s door in 2016 only to be turned away.

1. Can Burns, Davis and Hargrave Avoid the Dreaded Sophomore Slump?

My, how times have changed. When decline of the Steelers defense became indisputable in 2013 commentators rightly pegged the dip to the to the 1,279 snaps logged by rookies during Dick LeBeau’s second to last year as defensive coordinator.

Three years later, it looked like rookies would write a similar story for Keith Butler’s second year as defensive coordinator.

People forget, but as Steelers scribe Carlos Ortega pointed out, at the middle of the 2016 the Steelers defense was on pace to match the 1988 Steelers defense’s records for futility. The turnaround of the Steelers defense on the back end of the 2016 is certainly one of the under-reported stories and it happened in large part because Artie Burns, Sean Davis and Javon Hargrave stopped playing like rookies.

On paper, all three men will pick up right where they left off.

Think about it. Who were the only two Steelers to touch Tom Brady during the AFC Championship game? Davis and Hargrave. Mike Tomlin and Keith Butler need these men to grow in their second years. And while that’s a reasonable expectation, it is far from a given.

Troy Edwards won the Steelers 1999 rookie of the year, and returned to training camp defended his lax training regimen by complaining that he couldn’t race air. Kendrell Bell looked like a Chad Brown, James Farrior, Ryan Shazier composite as a rookie 2001, but injuries and an unwillingness to learn coverage schemes surfaced at St. Vincents in the summer of 2002.

A sophomore slump by any of these stud 2016 rookies could have catastrophic consequences for the Steelers defense in 2017.

The emergence Burns, Davis and Hargrave only partially explains the Steelers 2016 defensive turnaround. The rest of the turn around was fueled by Bud Dupree’s return to the lineup and James Harrison’s promotion to starter.

James Harrison is, by definition, a living legend.

And if the 2016’s James Harrison wasn’t the same as the 2008 version of Harrison that won the NFL’s defensive player of the year award, he was still better than any other outside linebacker the Steelers had.

But it would be foolish for anyone to expect James Harrison to remain a 16 game 3 down, four quarter starter in 2017.

If the Steelers are to seriously contend for Lombardi number 7 in 2017, someone else must step up. Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert drafted TJ Watt to be that man, and if OTAs are any indication, the linebacker clearly has the athletic skills. The Steelers need to use training camp to get him ready to contribute early and often.

The other alternative would be to see if Anthony Chickillo can contribute on the right side. That’s not something that Steelers coaches seem to be considering, but we suggested it last year and will do so again.

3. Can Senquez, Sensabaugh or Sutton Turn the Corner?

The narrative on Pittsburgh’s defense since getting torched by Aaron Rogers in Super Bowl XLV has been that the Steelers need to get better at cornerback. This narrative has played for so long that William Gay, one of the “culprits” in 2010, has gone from scapegoat to “Big Play Willie Gay” to a player whose skills are seen as being on the decline.

Keenan Lewis looked ready to break out in 2012, yet the Steelers let him go, gambling on Cortez Allen offering more “upside.”

The good news is that with Coty Sensabaugh, Senquez Golson, Cam Sutton and Brian Allen, the Steelers for the first time in a long time, bring some real quantity to training camp with them. If the Steelers are going to make a serious Super Bowl run, Carnell Lake must find a way to coax come quality out of that unit over the next few weeks on the grass of Chuck Noll Field.

4. Can the Steelers Build Viable Depth at Running Back Behind Bell?

It says here that any running back sets both regular season and playoff rushing single game rushing records that neither Franco Harris nor Jerome Bettis could touch is special. But the self-life of NFL running backs is precariously short.

It also says here that the process of trying to extend Le’Veon Bell’s shelf life by limiting his carries a simple exercise on paper but a horrendously complicated endeavor when you try to do it in the heat of a game.

Did anyone really want to see Tomlin spell Le’Veon Bell with Fitzgerald Toussaint in his record setting performance over the Bills?

I don’t think so either. Regardless of whether he had a choice or not, Todd Haley over used Le’Veon Bell down the stretch in 2016. Yes, lack of a number two wide receiver to complement Antonio Brown had a lot to do with that, but the fact is the Steelers cupboard was bare at running back.

The days when the Steelers RB depth chart would read Bettis, Huntley, Zereoue, Fuamatu-Ma’afala and Witman, with some guy named on Kreider on the practice squad have ended and will never return. But the Steelers have rolled the dice for several seasons by going with an offensive backfield that was 2 or at and a half players deep.

And they’ve paid for it in the post season, in three straight years.

Even if Le’Veon Bell can stay completely healthy for a 19 straight games (yes, that’s counting on a 1st round playoff bye) Steelers running backs coach James Saxon needs to use his time at St. Vincents to establish solid depth behind his starter.

The loss was devastating to Jerome Bettis, who’d planned to retire and felt he’d lost his shot at a championship. On the sidelines, rookie Ben Roethlisberger implored “The Bus” to return, promising he’d get him his ring. Roethlisberger delivered as the Steelers triumphed in Super Bowl XL.

Now, as Roethlisberger contemplates parking his own bus, the question remains as to whether his teammates can deliver as he did for Bettis 12 years ago.

Over the first five weeks of 2016, Coates looked more than capable of filling the very large shoes of receiver Martavis Bryant, who was suspended for the entire season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

But after accumulating 421 receiving yards over the first five games–including several deep receptions–Coates suffered a fractured finger and hand laceration in a Week 5 victory over the Jets at Heinz Field.

Soon, a groin injury reared its ugly head.

The result:

Coates was a virtual non-factor the rest of the season and throughout the playoffs, as he ended the year with just 435 yards on 21 receptions.

As per Jeremy Fowler, a Steelers beat writer who covers the team for ESPN.com, Coates could start training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, but may be back as soon as the middle of August.

While it doesn’t sound like a major injury, it hasto be a frustrating setback for Coates, who, in addition to having to compete with Antonio Brown and the newly-reinstated Bryant for passes from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, will also have to contend with young slot receiver Eli Rogers and second-round pick JuJu Smith-Schuster for playing time.